Findings of ICPR's Voicing Loss project published in The Conversation

ICPR's Voicing Loss project, funded by the ESRC and conducted in partnership with the University of Bath, examined experiences of coroners' inquests among bereaved people. Findings of the research are the subject of an article published today in The Conversation. The article reports that many of the bereaved people who participated in the Voicing Loss study had experiences of the coroner's inquest that were far removed from what they had expected and hoped for. This mismatch between expectations and realities was a cause of anger and despair and often made the grief that followed traumatic bereavement even more crushing.

The article concludes that time is overdue for a public conversation about the functions and purposes of the inquest process. A question that must be central to this conversation is whether the process should be more consistently, clearly and comprehensively focused on identifying and tackling institutional failings and other underlying causes of preventable deaths. And, if so, what structures and resources are required if this is to be done effectively.